· October, 2007

Stories about Human Rights from October, 2007

Russia: Remembering Victims of 1937; Podcasting Their Names

  30 October 2007

Seventy years since Stalin's Great Terror of 1937, many Russians are ignorant of their country's horrible past, Windows on Eurasia reports. Nevertheless, hundreds of people came to Lubyanka yesterday to read out the names of thousands of victims – and PODstantsiya, a podcasting project of the Moscow-based Foundation for Independent...

India: Child Labour

  30 October 2007

Atanu Dey raises some questions about banning child labour, especially relevant in the context of recent media reports about GAP sourcing its clothes from vendors who use child labour.

Burkina Faso: Blogs Help Burkinabe Skirt Censorship

  30 October 2007

In Burkina Faso, blogging is more than a pastime. It is the eyes and ears of thousands of net users. That's why from October 11th to the 17th, during the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Thomas Sankara, Burkina Faso's internet connection was cut in order to prevent those commemorating...

Armenia: Homophobic Advert

  30 October 2007

Blogian posts a photograph of an advertisement for a rap party in Yerevan named after a historical Armenian site in the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan. Hrag Vartanian says that the advert depicting an American girl in a Stars & Stripes bikini with the words “Homosexuals and Animals Not Welcome” would...

Lebanon: Polemic and nature

  30 October 2007

Moustafa from Beirut Spring's blog noted in one of his latest posts that Lebanon is “dropping French.” Somehow that claim is true; Lebanese francophone blogs are few and different from those in English, and are also less popular. However, they present a face of Lebanon that we would like to...

Japan: Fingerprinting to Prevent al-Qaida's Friend of Friend

  30 October 2007

Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama explained the need of getting foreigners’ fingerprint was to prevent al-Qaida's “friend of friend” from sneaking into the country with false passports and disguises. However, from what he said, he is also al-Qaida's “friend of friend” as he cited the information from ‘an unidentified “friend of...

Russia, Ukraine: Corrupt Traffic Police

  29 October 2007

Mark MacKinnon writes about a recent encounter with corrupt traffic cops in Moscow and links to a New York Times story on one man's attempt to stand up to the law enforcement's unlawful behavior. English Russia reposts a Ukrainian blogger's cell phone pictures of how Ukrainian drivers “express their disagreement...

Poland: Roman Giertych's Out of Politics

  29 October 2007

The beatroot is wondering who he is going to “write about for the next two years,” now that Roman Giertych has been forced out of politics, along with his party, the League of Polish Families, which “got a miserable 1.3 percent in Sunday’s election.”

Brazil: “Haiti is here, Haiti is not here”

  29 October 2007

Haiti has become a regularly commented on issue on the Brazilian blogosphere. The special connection between Brazil and Haiti was initiated in 2004, when Brazilian troops started to participate in MINUSTAH — the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti. Last week the UN decided to extend its presence in the...

Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood

  29 October 2007

Tarek Amr shares with us the thoughts of an Egyptian blogger (Ar) about Islamic political parties in this post, which sheds light on the Muslim Brotherhood, its ideologies and impact on Egypt.